1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the field of electronic personal coaches that assist individuals in learning and playing a sport, and more particularly to the information exchange aspect of such a personal coaching system.
2. Statement of the Problem
U.S. Pat. No. 6,931,290 issued Aug. 16, 2005 to Carl A. Forest and U.S. Pat. No. 6,757,572 issued Jun. 29, 2004 to the same inventor, disclose a computerized system and method for practicing and instructing in a sport. These patents explain a sport personal coaching system and method using the game of golf as an example. In the disclosed system, the user enters into a client computer a plurality of discrete physical factors describing a real or hypothetical situation in the sport. For example, a player on a golf course has the ability to enter information concerning the distance to the pin, or the green, the grade to the green, the condition of the green, e.g., fast or slow, obstacles between the ball and the green, the terrain in which the ball is located, the lie of the ball, the slope on which the ball lies, the position of the golfer with respect to the ball, and the environmental conditions, such as wind. To do this the user selects one of a variety of alternatives from a pull down menu. For example, the user can select the type of lie by selecting one of the following from a pull down menu: divot, embedded, hard, soft etc. Alternatively, at least some of the discrete physical factors can be automatically entered. For example, a geophysical position system (GPS) can be used to locate the ball position on the course and provide the distance to the pin. After the discrete physical factors have been entered, the system then assists the player in choosing the appropriate actions to take in response to the physical situation, e.g., the proper club, the proper shot, the proper grip, the proper stance, the proper swing, etc. The user can also use the system in practicing the judgmental aspects of a sport, for example on a home personal computer. The user can purchase packages in which the instructions are those of a particular expert, such as a particular golf professional. In this manner, the user gets personal coaching on a particular physical golfing situation.
In another embodiment, of the system of the above-identified patents, a user can obtain real-time assistance from golf professional. In this embodiment, the discrete physical factors input into the client system are transmitted in real time to a computer accessible to golf professional where the golf professional can view them on a display. The golf professional then can communicate the appropriate actions to the user. The user and the professional can also talk to each other, with the professional providing comments and instructions on the user's play.
The system of the U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,931,290 and 6,757,572 is highly useful and a significant advance that is not provided by any other known sports coaching system. However, these systems have not yet become commercially successful and adapted by the golfing community. In actual play, the exchange of data between the user and the system, and the user and the professional can often slow up play on a golf course. To accurately describe an actual golfing physical situation in detail, a lot of data has to be uploaded to the system of the '290 and '572 patents. Further, words such as “hard” or “soft” have different meanings to different people, and players sometimes are indecisive about selecting descriptions from the pull down menus. Further, the inherent ambiguity in such terms leads to inaccuracies in the coaching. This prevents the system from being as useful as it could be on the golf course, as the user can be rushed, or decide not to use the system because the user has been asked to speed up his or her game. In sports other than golf, such as rock climbing, this can be an even more significant problem because the constraints of the sport can require prompt, decisive action. Even in the practice mode, the input of data and the providing of instructions as described in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,931,290 and 6,757,572 can slow the practice, or at times create ambiguity that hinders learning. Thus, it would be highly desirable to have a method and apparatus for exchanging input data and instructions in an electronic personal sport coaching system that was faster, less ambiguous, more intuitive and thus more acceptable to the average sports player.